Triviateers
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The Triviateer Logo, created by six-time finalist Gary Pyle

Triviateers
by Matthew Walker

Disney animation had the Nine Old Men. Club 55 was an assemblage of original cast members from Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom. And from malls across America came the Disney Store National Trivia Finalists, also known as Triviateers. A total of 50 cast members would earn the title of Triviateer as their knowledge of all things Disney took them on a special journey from onstage at their individual stores to onstage at the Happiest Place on Earth.

Though the contests began in 1989, the Triviateers did not technically come into being until October 19, 1992 when six-time finalist Gary Pyle coined the term and began a newsletter to help the contest participants keep in touch with one another.

"You know how people always trade addresses and phone numbers and promise to write but never do? I thought I'd actively keep everyone in touch. Just write to me and I'd put it all together as news for all of us trivia friends to share," said Gary.

Through the years, the Disney Store National Trivia Competition would continue to evolve but the basics remained the same. Cast members in each store would work together to solve 12 monthly trivia questions from January through July. If a store maintained a certain percentage of correct answers, it would be eligible to have one of its hourly employees - chosen by winning an in-store contest - represent the store at a regional competition. The eight cast members with the highest scores at these regional competitions from across the country would then be sent to Disneyland to compete against each other for the title of National Trivia Champion. Once a cast member won the competition, he or she would no longer be eligible to compete in future years.

"It was fun seeing how the concept seemed to expand each year," said Barb Ogorek, a five-time representative of stores in the Woodfield and Charlestowne malls in Illinois. "The first year I was there, it was held at the Golden Horseshoe and was just this small, kind of intimate little theater. Then they moved it to the Fantasyland Theater (Videopolis) and it became a true Disney 'production.'

"There was one year when they made a trivia competition training video for the stores. After the competition, we had to go all over Disneyland and be filmed in costume on the carousel and the tea cups, running through the castle, etc. Regular Disneyland guests had no idea who we were but they were taking our pictures like crazy, figuring we were 'somebodies' since we had our own film crew following us around!"

The Disney Store did a great job of making sure that each Triviateer felt like they were a "somebody." There were many perks to participating in the contest beyond a free trip to Disneyland. Highlights for many included a parade down Main Street U.S.A., lunch at the exclusive Club 33, a train ride around the park in the private Lilly Belle car, a tour of Walt's Apartment above the firehouse and the chance to meet honorary Triviateer Dave Smith, the head of the Walt Disney Archives, who wrote each year's questions.

"I felt that we received almost the royal treatment while in California," said Steve Burns, who represented the now-closed Oak Court Disney Store in Memphis, Tennessee. "In 1993, at our rehearsal in Disneyland after the park had closed, we all had cake for Dave Smith's birthday. That was also the year that we toured Feature Animation and Imagineering. I believe those tours, along with Dave's tour of Walt's apartment, were the highlight of that trip."